


Parrot's Preen

by BoxOnTheNile



Series: Gifted Lives [3]
Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen, for leechy's au, magic gifts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 05:21:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15136031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BoxOnTheNile/pseuds/BoxOnTheNile
Summary: Grif knows there’s something different about him and Kai.But does that really matter?





	Parrot's Preen

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HappyLeech](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Cat's Blessing](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15135824) by [HappyLeech](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HappyLeech/pseuds/HappyLeech). 



Grif knows there’s something different about him and Kai. 

There always has been. The first time Kai had been put in his arms, the neighbor that delivered her carefully arranging his arms, he’s felt… bigger, somehow. Like he can do anything if she thinks he can.

He held her close in the sweltering Hawaiian summer and they were okay. 

Somehow, they were always okay.

So when Kai comes waltzing across the canyon in cutoff jeans and combat boots, he’s annoyed, but not overly concerned.

“Go home,” he shouts.

“Tucker’s a dick and it’s hot,” she yells back, grinning, and the feeling in his chest doesn’t belong in Blood Gulch. He’s not allowed to care about things here.

He strides out of the base and lets her hug him anyway. She immediately sort of drapes herself over him, like all those days in with the windows thrown wide open and laying on each other because somehow it was cooler that way. For her, at least. Grif has never felt anything but mildly uncomfortable in the heat.

“It’s hot,” she says again, like he hasn’t been hearing those same words from his teammates all fucking morning. They’re all still in the base, saying it’s not so hot there. He sighs and leads her around the base into the shade, where they sit against the wall with Kai pressed right up to his side. 

That feeling comes back, like every time she’s near: like he can do fucking anything and things will work out in his favor every time and he clings to it like Kai clings to his arm. They doze in the shade for a while, until the sun starts setting and Grif hears the Blues in the distance screaming something about kidnapping.

Kai groans and stands, turning to offer her brother a hand up. “That’s my cue. Same time tomorrow?”

“Yep.” Grif takes her hands and lets her help pull him to his feet. 

She comes back the next day, heads straight into Red Base during a fucking meeting and tucks under his arm while the rest of his team stares. “Ignore me!” she chirps, and starts reading some cheap romance novella with werewolves and bad sex scenes. Sarge turns on his heel and leaves, Simmons stammers through the start of six different sentences before giving up, and Donut leans across the table with a grin.

“I don’t think I’ve read that one,” Donut says.

“It’s fucking awful.” She grins at him. “Look, this stretches on for six pages and they never use the word ‘cock’, like-”

“Okay!” Grif says loudly, standing and dragging Kai towards the door. “Excuse us!” 

Kai giggles all the way back to their shady spot, snuggling into his side once they sit down. “Dex, really though, this is so bad, listen-” and she reads half a page before both of them are laughing so hard they can’t breathe.

“Where did you find that?” Grif asks once he catches his breath. 

“Stole it from Leo!” she says.

“Fucking _who_?”

“Church, sorry.” Kai nudges his ribs with her elbow.

There’s a shuffling sound around the corner and Simmons staggers into view. He whips around and yells, “Donut!”

Donut saunters from around the corner and plops down next to Grif and Kai with a handful of honest-to-god popsicles. "Hi, Sister, welcome to Red Base!"

Kai is too busy staring at the treasures he holds to correct him on her name. "How did you get those?" She peels herself off Grif's side and reaches for one.

Donut passes it over without a fight, smiling like he's in on some joke. "Just lucky, I guess." 

“Come sit down, Simmons.” Grif rips the wrapper off his popsicle and pops it in his mouth. 

Simmons inches along the wall and crouches awkwardly several feet away. Kai holds her popsicle(the only blue one Donut had) with her teeth and grabs the front of his shirt to yank him forward. He yelps and ends up sprawled in the dirt. “Huh,” he says after a second. “It’s cooler here.” He rolls onto his back and Donut drops a popsicle onto his chest.

“It’s always been like that around Dex,” Kai says, then deepthroats her goddamn popsicle. Simmons turns scarlet and Donut applauds. 

“Kaikaina,” Grif scolds, and she pulls the popsicle from her mouth to stick her tongue out at him. 

Donut scoops the novella off the ground where Kai dropped it. “Did you say this was Church’s?” He flips through it briefly. “I thought he had a girlfriend.”

“We’re a whole team of useless bisexuals,” Kai sighs. “It’s a wonder we get anything done.”

Grif snickers around the last piece of his popsicle. “Maybe I should switch teams.” Immediately, he checks behind him for Sarge. 

“No, but you should come see me so I don’t have to walk all the way over here. It’s hot as shit, Dex.”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Grif sucks the artificial flavor off his fingers. Simmons, whose blush was fading, has blood come rushing back to his cheeks. Oh, that’s fucking wonderful. He’s been meaning to flirt with the dumb nerd for months, but never found the time or motivation ~~or confidence~~.

It’ll turn out fine. Things are always fine when he’s with his sister.

So he makes direct eye contact, thumb still in his mouth, and winks.

Simmons drops his half melted popsicle to the ground.

There's three straight minutes of shouting as everyone scrambles to rescue the popsicle and argue whether it was still edible. By some insane stroke of luck, it landed in one of the canyon’s sparse patches of grass, so it's mostly salvageable. Simmons yells at Grif for making him drop it in the first place, Grif tells him to stop being a baby, Donut threatens to put them on dish duty together.

“You don’t have that authority!” Simmons says.

“Try me,” Donut shoots back, and Simmons scowls, because _he’s right_.

Kai elbows Grif again so he’ll look at her, then flicks her gaze to Simmons and back to him. He shrugs with one shoulder. She rolls her eyes and snuggles into his side.

He knows there’s something different about him and his sister, but did it really matter when things always turned out okay?

**Author's Note:**

> Grif- Seal's Climate- a sort of internal temperature control, making him immune to heatstroke or hypothermia.  
> Kaikaina- Parrot's Preen- when she decides to do something, if she truly believes she can, she will
> 
> Gifts can, to an extent, be shared by those in the vicinity. 
> 
> A complete list of characters and their Gifts can be found in a google doc linked in Leechy's fic.
> 
> HAHAHA I LOVE THIS AU MOTHERFUCKERS


End file.
